Craig’s Web Site

A few weeks back Jalon and I made a stop at Oceanside aiport near San Diego. As we entered the pattern, I heard a familiar call sign on the airport frequency: N48768. This was my first airplane! I purchased it in 1989 to learn to fly and got my license in it later that year. I sold it in 1991 and hadn’t seen it in almost 20 years. It is currently owned by a flight school in Orange County and was being flown by a student and his instructor. It was certainly showing it’s age, but I was happy to see it was still around and getting the job done after all these years.

My friend Steve scored some VIP passes to the Thunderbirds Acceptance Demonstration at Nellis AFB. It’s kind of like a graduation ceremony for the new class of TBirds before they head out for the summer airshow season. They did a show for a small group of family and friends and we got to tour their training base and stood right out on the flight line while they did their routine. Pretty cool!

   

We had a fantastic day touring Ventura and Anacapa Island courtesy of our friend Dan at Channel Island Helicopers. We even spotted a pod of grey whales! Highly recommended if you’re ever near the Oxnard airport.

  

It was a beautiful fall weekend in SoCal so we decided to fly down to Lake Wohlford near San Diego for lunch. Our friends Steve and Jen flew along in their Cherokee 140.

 

This year for our annual summer flying vacation, we decided to head up the coast to the San Juan Islands north of Seattle, WA. We brought the folding bikes and camping gear and stayed in some really beautiful spots. Click the photo below for for the rest of the album.

After a long courtship and one year and a half of engagement, Jalon and I finally tied the knot on June 6th, 2009. If you didn’t make it to the ceremony (or even if you did), the photos are below. All in all, it was a fantastic day. Everything came out exactly as we wanted it. A big thank-you to everyone who came and helped out.

Wedding Photos

Last week, Jalon and I few down to the British Virgin Islands for a vacation with some friends. We charterd a 47 foot sailboat and circled the main island of Tortola, stopping each night at one of the outlying islands. The water was warm, and the weather was beautiful. Much thanks to Mike S. for setting up the trip and captaining the boat. It was a great trip! Click the photo below for more photos.

I like the Chino airshow because it’s more about the classic warbirds than the modern jets. Sure they have F16s and F18s, etc. But if you like the WWII and Korean war fighters, you won’t find a better display this side of Oshkosh.

   

   

This past weekend was the Chino airshow. I wanted to try taking some good photos so I rented a killer lens from a local photo store for $30 (worth it!). It was a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS. Sunday night happened to be a full moon and the lens was just sitting there waiting to be returned so I snapped a few quick pix.